Painting and Developing a Composition

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Released

5/20/2015

We asked illustrator Mary Jane Begin to create a brand-new composition from three (surprise) elements. The goal? To teach members how to think about composition in terms of visual interest and implied story. In these videos, Mary Jane creates thumbnail sketches to conceptualize the layout and chooses the thumbnail that best communicates the message. She then translates that thumbnail into a larger sketch and uses color and texture to pull together a composition suitable for showing to a client or using as the basis for a final painting or illustration. These lessons show how an artist works on her feet, and puts concepts such as the rules of thirds, negative space, and drawing from reference materials into a real-world context.

Skill Level Beginner

34m 2s

Duration

14,500

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- Hi, I'm Mary Jane Begin,professor, author and illustratorand I've been asked by lynda.com to create an imageout of three elements that they've just introduced to meand compose a picture that either tells a storyor explains some kind of idea.So, not having looked at these before,I'm not sure exactly what to doso I'll start with what I usually dowhich is to thumbnail.I'll do some really simple sketchesthat are small and give me a sense ofwhere I should put things.

I have a boat, I have water, I have a tree.Where do I put each thing?I'm starting with the water becauseI'm thinking about that as being at the base of the imageand I'm thinking well what if the boatis in the water and the tree is in the background?That's where I'm starting.And the tree is a really great shape.This seems really boring to me though.So like, here's my boat, here's my water.

No.Now the thing that I have to think about isI can play with the framework of the shape.It doesn't have to be square,it doesn't have to be rectangle.They didn't give me that parameter.So what if I go in a horizontal band?I'm also looking at a boat that I'm looking down intoand that's my point of reference soI sort of have to think about the perspectiveof the boat as a guideline for my point of view.When I thumbnail I tend to thing aboutshapes and value first before anything elsebecause it helps me to think simply.

I love the fact that this boat has no one in itand yet it looks like the oars are upas though it was just rode recently.So that's a really cool thing and for methat sort of starts to tell a story.I start to think about who was just in that boat?Anybody?Is the boat rowing itself?I don't know.What about his tree?What's the story with the tree?It has a kind of personality and shapethat's really interesting.It's very bare.

It almost looks like it's, I don't want to say dead,but it doesn't look like it's flourishing.What if the boat is sort ofangling towards the tree somehow?Maybe make this composition a little taller?I'm also thinking about some compositional rules.Which is, in this case, a two-thirds rule,or the golden mean or the golden rulewhere you want an image to be brokenin two thirds and a third as opposed to in halfsimply because it creates more visual interest.

So if I start to think about that,place my tree somewhere back here,maybe on a little island.Here's my boat.It starts to be a little more interesting.But I wanna play with another potential point of viewor frame in point of view and push that boata little more dramatically as though I'mabove it like a bird, a bird's eye view,and see what that looks like.Now, a this point, I'm thumb-nailingso it's really just stream of consciousness.

I'm thinking and drawing but I'm doing moredrawing that's helping me to thinkthan really contemplating it.I'm sort of just seeing what happensas I play with these different elements.I also have, you know, this waterhas a kind of roughness to it so, what does that tell me?Where should I go with that?Again, I'm trying not to break up this space in halfbecause that would be boring.But I'm at a certain point of view with this boat,if I play with it this way.

So now I have to think about the point of view of this treewhich in this case, I'm looking up at it.I'm looking down at the boat, I'm looking up at the tree,which is a pretty interesting challenge.I have to imagine what that tree might look likefrom this point of view and would there even be sky?You'd probably be looking down atjust an element of a tree and some,maybe a little bit of something in the distance.

Maybe I'm casting a shadow.Maybe the boat is not even on the water.Maybe it's floating freely above the water.Suddenly when I do that, I'm taking this out ofa place where it's necessarily realistic.And honestly when you have illustration clients often times,they throw various elements at you that you have to,you have to figure out what to do with them.And sometimes they don't make sensebut you have to make sense of them.

Either conceptual sense or narrative sense.It's a challenge, that's what makes it interesting.So there's something about the boathovering above the water that I really like.I kind of like this format but I'm gonna justkeep playing with some thumbnails.What if I try a square?A square is a kind of safe format.It's harder to compose with thana long band horizontal or a tall verticalbecause there's not a lot of places to go.

You tend to land in the center.So if I choose a square, and I'm still looking atthe direction of this boat, I like that.There's something about that that,that's sort of my key that I'm working with.I'm gonna try placing it,what if it is placed more in the center?What if I cut part of the boat off?What happens then?What if we don't see the back end?When you're thumb-nailing, you're trying tothink of as many possible solutions as you can.You don't wanna just think of one way and then I'm done.

That's not interesting.So if I try, I liked that hovering of the boatabove the water so I'm gonna leave that.Cast a little, kind of faux indication of a shadowand see what happens if the boat is cut off.But then I look at this and say,"Wait, there's a weird tangent here."So I'm gonna crop in a little moreso it doesn't look like I'mcutting off the edge of the boat.That's never a good idea.You never want to cut things off right at the tip.It's called a tangent and it's not a good idea.

It draws attention outside the frame.It pulls you out of the picture.So what if I put the tree on the other sideon an island, on this side.Well, the problem with that is,if the tree is over here and the boat is over here,there's nothing going on in this part of the compositionso that doesn't work either for me.Let me go back to something I liked,which is this point of view.

Try another.I liked the idea of the squareso I'm gonna try another version of that square.Here I'm also starting to think about,and this might be a weird thing,but what if I put the tree inside the boat?What if the tree is actually,as though it's riding the boat?Or growing out of the boat somehow.What would that be like?And this is just stream of consciousness.

I'm thinking things through, thinking aboutwhat is the story or idea that I want to tell?What does it mean?And so, that's just one potential concept.And I don't know if it's gonna work but it's,it's something that I'm thinking about.But then I start to think to myself,the austerity of that boatand how it might be wanting to get to that treeis the story that keeps rolling around in my head.

And this doesn't get there so I wanna go back tothe core, which is the story.And I'm gonna do a few more thumbnailsand see what I can come up with that speaks to that story.So I finished my thumbnails andI tried to work through a lot ofdifferent ways of thinking aboutwhat story I was trying to tell.And I started with the boat from the leftgoing towards the tree, imagining the treemight be on a small island and the boatis trying to reach it.

And so I kept thumb-nailing that outwith the boat on the left, stage left,heading to the right, which is the wayWesterners read stories, so that made sense to me.I tried shifting and sketching the boatreally large and making the tree small, far away,and for some reason it just wasn't working.And then I did this rough little sketchof the boat on a kind of tiny island with this treeand suddenly, I was like, "That's the story."When you choose a moment to tell,you often want to choose the right moment.

And it could be at the beginning of the action,the middle, or after somethings already happened.And so I wanted it to be where the boat's already landedand the boat and the tree are together.It's kind of a love story.So these are inanimate objectsbut for me as a storyteller, my compositionscome out of wanting to explain the narrative.So what I'm gonna do is take this little tiny thumbnailand translate it to a larger sketch.